Tea Party rage: New YorkerÃ¢â?¬â?¢s Packer sees it roiling in Cville

The day after a blogger posted this address as Perriello's and urged visits from outraged Tea Partiers, a propane line on a grill was found severed.PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Writers for the New Yorker seem to be staking out Charlottesville restaurants. First, Calvin Trillin created a stir by writing about Taste of China, now journalist George Packer is predicting “Armageddon in Virginia” from Arch’s Frozen Yogurt.

Lunching at Arch's with Verga, Packer reports, are a "building contractor, a veneer manufacturer, and the owner of a coffee-roasting shop," all Tea Party supporters who are "furious at government."

Writes Packer, "The anti-government ideology around the table at Arch’s was so unyielding that it might have been a gathering of Ayn Rand Objectivists."

On the morning of Friday, March 26, Republicans found windows in their County headquarters smashed by bricks.PHOTO BY STEPHANIE MARIE GARCIA

Packer also chats with County supe Ken Boyd, who is also seeking Perriello’s seat, and finds a less angry man willing to compromise, but "in the prevailing atmosphere of fury among Republicans," says he "probably doesn’t stand a chance of getting nominated." Still, he quotes Boyd as saying that the Obama Administration is pursuing an inflationary policy "deliberately, so they can destroy the economy and rebuild it along socialist lines."

Packer also cites the gas line cutting incident at the Perriello home, and similar such acts of vandalism across the country last week, and declares that "Virginia, not traditionally an incubator of extremism, has become one of the loudest sources of opposition and nullification on the right."

In the end, Packer suggests we might be in for some trouble.

"The language and posture of the opposition to Perriello, health care, Obama, and everything his Administration does have closed off any breathing room for reason, facts, or compromise. There’s no space between a roll-call vote and Armageddon. When people feel they can’t breathe, they lash out. The Republican Party is lashing out, destructively and self-destructively."

59 comments

Voted wrong in 2008 March 28th, 2010 | 12:25pm

I am ashamed of the party I supported, as did my parents and grandparents before me. I will never vote for a Democrat ever again. Obama has taught me the reality that a Democrat will lie and say anything to get elected.

Nancy March 29th, 2010 | 9:36am

There is no way to reason with these people --read this:

"With No Jobs, Plenty of Time to help build the Tea Party Movement"

"He and others do not see any contradictions in their arguments for smaller government even as they argue that it should do more to prevent job loss or cuts to Medicare. After a year of angry debate, emotion outweighs fact."

" Verga said that the biggest threat to the country’s security was the Americans who voted for Obama. Ã¢â?¬Å?

Statements such as this, have convinced me, that what we are going through with the Tea Party Movement is a repeat of the Pre-Civil Rights Era. The dwindling number of white men, when compared to the changing demographics of our country, has given rise to an unconscious rage in these people; that is truly scary when coupled with the present economic downturn, lack of trust in objective journalism, the decreased ability to engage in civil debate, and the absence of belief-that the right to vote is to be cherished, as the way to resolve our differences.

BusMan March 28th, 2010 | 6:23am

Chickens coming home to roost.

W. Lakey March 28th, 2010 | 6:03am

Fear. Anger. Racism. Homophobia.
The Far Right, abetted by the Main-Stream Media (MSM), has taken the heart out of the moderate, thoughtful, Republican center. The voice of the Republican Party no longer speaks for any decent sector of the American Public.
Teabaggers (such a name!) enjoy our interstate highways, public schools, national parks, emergency services (police and fire protection), Social Security retirement and disability payments, Medicare, and what-all; then kvetch about "big-government."
They threaten the nation with a new civil war. Fired up individuals fly planes into IRS offices, spit on congressmen, call out racial slurs. The MSM, now controlled by major corporations, play up this seditious behavior in and endless loop of "news" while ignoring the bad behavior of the corporations that own them.
We need a healthy two party system. Not one party of, by, and for the people flailing in opposition to the greed-driven military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower so presciently warned us against.

The old Republican party would want nothing to do with the tea party. A party based on MORALS, VALUES, and CAPITALISM would not support a bunch of UNPATRIOTIC racist urban TERRORISTS. The new GOP and Tea-Party depend on misinformation and FEAR to spread lies and CONFUSION. These anarchists depend on all of the government programs that exist, yet they want less government. As a Republican, I am embarrassed at the actions of the handful who spoiled the entire lot. Thank BUSH 43 for the bad economy, high jobless rates, fraud with weapons of mass destruction, fraud by deregulating banks causing the housing crash, and the outright lie that he could run this country. If you want things to get worse, VOTE PALIN 2012!

ArnoldCantstandahater March 29th, 2010 | 1:24pm

Caesonia, the only problem with your gripe, is that it was all started by BUSH 43. If you start sliding on ice, you're going to go off of the road. So, do you over correct in another direction or continue in that direction and ease off of the road? It took 8 years to bring this country down, do you really think we can fix it in 2?

Jack March 29th, 2010 | 1:24pm

There has been a huge uptick in right wing extremist groups, which have cross pollinated with the tea party movement; here is a report of an FBI raid of one of these groups that took place yesterday in Washtenaw Michigan. There were also raids in Sandusky Ohio and Hammond Indiana .

Hey Boo, I would add one thing to the list, The wealthy consolidating wealth and moving to secure gated communities

Hawkins Dale March 28th, 2010 | 3:33pm

Oh please oh please oh please...

Let the Republicans pick Laurence Verga, or somebody just as nutty.

I don't understand the nominating process enough to know if this is likely. But boy would it be entertaining.

Geez March 28th, 2010 | 5:29pm

Towards the back of the book is an itemized list - compiled in 1983 - of what was going to be going down during *this* time period. Very specific, detailed things, we’re not talking about vague so-called predictions. The last items on the list just before the big Ã¢â?¬Å?changeover” involve, and I quote from the book:

- People’s revolt and resistance movements
- Public’s discovery of cover-ups
- Taxation refusals
- War resistance (note: We weren’t in any wars back in 1983 when this was compiled.)
- Policy disagreements within government body
- Major upheaval within governments
***
Yeah, it's not as though those things had just happened during the Vietnam/Watergate era. Wow, what amazing prophecy.

Col. Forbin March 28th, 2010 | 2:13pm

"It is really quite sobering what has happened. From 100% of our economy was private prior to September of 2008, but as of Tuesday, the federal government has now taken ownership or control of 51% of the private economy." - Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Teabagger Intellectual Heavyweight

"The media wants you to believe that tea party patriots are toothless hillbillies." - Bachmann.

well now.... March 28th, 2010 | 12:03pm

Good point, Moderate. Where are the "normal" tea partiers insisting that all the nut jobs leave the movement? That's what I would do. I would NEVER choose to be associated with racists or those that do violence against any other citizen. It is not enough to say, "they are a small minority". Either identify who they are and kick them out of the movement or continue to allow yourselves to be painted as associates of them.

As far as the New Yorker being the "most left-wing" popular magazine, keep in mind that it is a magazine for New Yorkers, not Virginians. It is national in scope due to the standard of excellence in its prose and journalism. However, I doubt that writers for the New Yorker would deny that if their views were placed on Virginia political spectrum, they would be to the far left.

This writer does not claim to be writing the unvarnished truth. But certainly his opinion is resonant with a truth that most tea partiers might not like to acknowledge: now that they have failed to defeat health insurance reform, people are slowly waking up to the notion that the bill is quite reasonable and helpful to most Americans.

More and more, the tea party is appearing to be a small, vocal fringe group of disgruntled citizens, angry at the government for anything, everything and nothing all at the same time.

TJ March 28th, 2010 | 6:34am

Some on the right are even predicting the possibility of another civil war. As reported in the Washington Post:

"The federal government should not have the ability to command us to buy something that it decides we should buy," Vanderboegh said. The government, he added, has "absolutely no idea the number of alienated who feel that their backs are to the wall are out here . . . who are not only willing to resist this law to the very end of their lives, but are armed and are capable of making such resistance possible and perhaps even initiating a civil war."

The New Yorker is not a "magazine for New Yorkers." It's the pre-eminent intellectual weekly in the English language.

booo! March 28th, 2010 | 12:33pm

A civil war and mass tax protests have been in the prophesy cards for many years. And I mean that quite literally, talking about things like Native American prophesy. Pick up a copy of "Phoenix Rising - No Eyes' Visions of the Changes to Come" by Mary Summer Rain. Towards the back of the book is an itemized list - compiled in 1983 - of what was going to be going down during *this* time period. Very specific, detailed things, we're not talking about vague so-called predictions. The last items on the list just before the big "changeover" involve, and I quote from the book:

- People's revolt and resistance movements
- Public's discovery of cover-ups
- Taxation refusals
- War resistance (note: We weren't in any wars back in 1983 when this was compiled.)
- Policy disagreements within government body
- Major upheaval within governments

That's just a fraction of the list, there's much more that was on the agenda to happen prior to this - 98% of which did come to pass and has already transpired. Things like:

Sound familiar? We're in the middle of it, right now. Welcome to America - and the rest of the world - 2010. Written back in 1983.

A few random things on the list have not happened, or if they did then I'm not aware of it or it happened in a slightly different way than what was said. The above mentioned stuff is supposed to occur just before the so-called "end," whatever that may entail. This was all supposedly coming from a blind Chippewa woman who lived a hermetic existence in the mountains of Colorado, who spoke English as a second language and didn't always understand the mechanisms of what it is she was seeing. She just saw, and gave the predictions to Mary.

It's always been in the cards. This was always going to happen. The old civilization is going to disappear. Way of life as we know it will become something we don't currently recognize. Better prepare and start mentally adjusting for it now. Those who hold on rigidly and don't bend with the wind will be the branch that breaks off.

Jeff D March 28th, 2010 | 7:38pm

Complete rubbish. Right wing? Hate-mongers? Armegeddon?

Did the doctor drop this guy Packer on his head when he was born. Does Packer have some sort of weird Charlottesville fetish?

Consider that over the past twenty years, Charlottesville and Albemarle County have seen an influx of people from the north, midwest, Europe, and Asia relocate here. I am from New York.

There is a greater diversity of experience with crooked politicians than in the past. There is there fore a greater resentment en masse (look it up), and a more vocal outcry.

This past year has seen many people in a worse financial situation than they have know before: loss of income, loss of investments, loss of opportunity. Then we see the Democratic Party taking advantage of this situation to rip-off of several trillion dollars of our federal tax dollars to distribute to pet government projects -- irregardless of the public outcry for help and outcry gainst this enourmous wasteful spending.

From here on out, every time a Democratic Party politican catches a cold, drops his toothbrush, or finds crab grass on his lawn it will be promoted (propogandized) as "An attack from the 'right wing' Republicans". Anything for cheap (as in low-class) publicity.

Perhaps Mr packer finds elected officials completely ignoring the will (no matter how loudly stated) of his/her constituents to be normal. For many Americans, it has been a new experience this past year.

Seems the news industry has become a giant collection of what New Emglanders used to call 'Chowder-heads'.

a friend March 29th, 2010 | 1:06am

Carrie, the plane guy WAS a teabagger event attendee AND other Congressmen corroborate that Lewis was called the n-word from someone in an angry mob. Even if they hadn't corroborated it, are you seriously accusing this guy that was nearly beaten to death in a Civil Rights march of LYING? Even YOU have seen the teabaggers holding signs with swastikas on them and hitler mustaches painted on them. You don't think that shows an exaggerated emotional response? You don't think that there MIGHT POSSIBLY have been verbal exaggerated emotional responses, in addition to the visual ones? You're a really typical right-winger in that your initial reaction is not to condemn this type of behavior, but rather to claim that it didn't happen.

Albemarle native March 29th, 2010 | 10:32am

redjalapeno:I can't find even one untruth in your statements.You are dead-on correct.

R.Lord March 29th, 2010 | 9:58am

Bailing out large companies by forcing all people to conform to those companies' policy of subsidizing unhealthy lifestyles at the expense of people with healthy lifestyles, eliminating other options previously competing with that program, and using that IRS to force people to conform - that is socialism because the favored companies essentially becomes a government entity and the free market options that compete with their program are eliminated.
I am guessing that if we could see the thesis that the current president wrote while at Harvard we would see that at that time he was very proud to use his middle name, and felt quite superior for espousing plans to destroy capitalism and exert centralized control and enforced mediocrity.

log March 29th, 2010 | 10:10am

Ã¢â?¬Å?Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”

~Benito Mussolini

Plutocrats rool!

Choc Cheerio March 29th, 2010 | 10:03pm

The easiest thing of all is to deceive one's self; for what a man wishes he generally believes to be true.
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"nearly half" does not seem to me to be a majority I voted for those who would address the heath care problem and am pleased that we have started to do so. I tried to have a conversation last night with a teabagger who is 72 and on medicare who thought the government should stay out of health care. When I asked him about his medicare coverage, he got indignant and told me that had nothing to do with Obama's socialist takeover of our country - how can you reason with at kind of thinking ?

R.Lord March 29th, 2010 | 12:07am

Those that elected him, including me, supported real health care reform in the form of taking control of health care away from a handful of corrupt large insurance companies that have systematically inflated the costs to health care consumers. What Tom Perrielo voted for was a bail out of these corrupt large insurance companies, and a loss of options for consumers. I am specifically angry that the high deductible policy that I can afford to protect my family from catastrophic injury or disease will be disallowed, and I will be forced to pay a lot more for a policy like the one that I dropped because I could not afford the premium. My best chance at avoiding financial ruin is a major angry backlash against the corrupt socialist democratic regime. By corrupt I mean that the bill Tom Perriello voted for includes a massive subsidy for the SEIU which is a corrupt organization, and forces me to pay money to a private company by force of law. As for why the health care agenda is so important ; Obama has lied about troop withdraws, the Patriot Act, foreclosure relief, the budget deficit, and much more. He is just a political prostitute beholden to numerous interests, what do you expect from the Chicago political machine anyhow. It took eight years of W. Bush but the Republican party is largely purged of sabre rattlers and religious fanatics, now hopefully it will take only four years of B. Hussein Obama to rid the democrats of socialists and apologists. I want to see what that socialist trash box wrote in the thesis that Harvard is keeping secret for him, then we will find out what his real intentions are.

Hazel Motes March 28th, 2010 | 10:59am

I know that the coffee roaster mentioned above is Bill Hay, the owner of Righteous Bean. Does anyone have any idea who the veneer manufacturer and building contractor might be? I want to make absolutely certain that not a penny of my hard-earned money goes into their pockets.

rob buffalo April 1st, 2010 | 11:26pm

I did not vote for Periello last time, but this time he will get my vote. He has represented the 5th district well. He has sponsored and passed many bills in favor of veterans (esp disabled veterans). He has brought in millions of dollars from Washington to develop 5th district. He voted against the bailout and argued for transparency clause.
As much as I resonate with the tea-party ideology, I don't think it is practical. Everybody can be a idealist, but only people in power know the compromise is the name of the game.
I hope people see past the wrong accusations. I hope they look at his record in the congress. Again, he has represented the 5th district very well.

Hoolarious March 28th, 2010 | 9:53am

Carrie, please stop spreading misinformation that you hear on Fox News. Joe Stack had a complicated set of political commitments, but in no way was he a "liberal."

Moderate in Moderation March 28th, 2010 | 11:49am

People who shrug off the severing of Bo Periello's gas line, Joe Stack's murder of an Army veteran, the shouting of slurs and spitting at Congressmen (notwithstanding Sean Hannity's newspeak, it actually did happen, even if you didn't watch the tape of it or talk to the witnesses) reinforce the image of Teabaggers as an angry mob of racist ultra-nationalists. They say it's only a few of them. As a minority, I say prove it. I'm not getting close enough to your shrieking, hysterical, menacing hoards to see the family element. If you're not afraid that without them, your teabag fests will be poorly attended, identify them and kick them out of your group instead of counting them as one of you.

Great March 28th, 2010 | 11:52am

I think it is great that we live in a country that allows us debate. The framers of the constitution were brilliant.
There are countries in this world were a butt of a rifle is the determining point in a debate.
The officials that draw our laws are all elected. Let the election process determine what happens. Remember that Obama ran on a "health care reform", and was elected into office.
Those that oppose the recent health care reform, have a right to voice there opinion, just as those who do not.
Tyranny of the majority: "If we hear only those views of which the majority hold,then you and I are free so long as we agree with the majority".
Go get them USA, go get em!

We have a Republican Party, bitter and angry in defeat, attempting to obstruct, discredit and tear apart anything and everything the Democrat Party is attempting to do. Cantor and others are "denouncing violence" and in the next breath using highly flammable rhetoric to blame Obama for the "destruction" of the United States.

Who was the party in power when terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center towers?
Who was the president that led the charge to "bring those to justice" that committed that act by invading a country that had nothing to do with it?
How many lives did that cost? (American, Iraqi, and coalition)
Invading Iraq led to the lynching of the leader of the country by a group of terrorists.
A public lynching - a staple of the south during a less civilized period in America.

How much did/is this war costing the United States? Couple this war with an unregulated, free market financial industry: a core Republican principle - where has that brought our economy?

Banks, insurance companies and Wall Street - all profit takers that do not balance the taking with any kind of production.

The Republican party has brought the United States to its knees economically and morally, both on the domestic front and the international front. This is not an opinion but can/is easily empirically observed and analyzed, UNLESS one views the world through the lens of denial; the current lens of the Republican party.

The party of denial, the party of no, the party of war, the party of the rich, the party of white and the party of misogyny are powerless, in denial and acting out. The very last thing this party wants is for a black man as president and a woman as Speaker of the House to rectify any of the problems the party of denial has left in its wake while it had complete control of the goverment of the fragile democracy that is the United States.

Republicans and conservatives are being forced to confront who and what their party stands for and the result is not really that surprising to anyone that is not entrenched in Republican/conservative ideology.

Obama is a: socialist, Muslim, communist and/or the anti-christ.
These are all descriptives that are being used to supplant one term: black.

Welcome to modernity in America.

Dennis Wright March 28th, 2010 | 12:44pm

Ayn Rand founded an objectivist school of individual philosophy which essentially stated what individuals do together is worthless and what they do as individuals, no matter how corrupt or abusive, is to be prized. She went on to act on her philosophy by starting an affair with Nathaniel Brandon while she and Mr. Brandon were married to others.

Mr. Brandon was significantly younger than she and an underling in her philosophical society. She conducted this affair openly and without regard to the feelings of either spouse. This affair ended both marriages and, when Mr. Brandon found someone closer to his own age, Ayn Rand trashed Mr. Brandon in the monthly magazine of her objectivist group, virtually throwing him out of her group.

This magazine was sold in grocery stores. I know because I read possibly the most vicious of her attacks while standing in a grocery store. Although the article did not mention their affair, it wasn't hard to "connect the dots" while reading her comments. Again, I read this in the grocery store where children are often unsupervised.

We have a resurgence of people who stop at nothing to get what they want. This is the foundation of Ayn Rands' philosophy. It is a shame we are still debating the merits of this dubious philosophy after all these years.

Given all this, I don't think Ayn Rand is resonsible for the vandalism and thuggery we are seeing. Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck don't help, but it is not their responsibility either. Ronald Reagan stood up for the right to be a racist in a most unfortunate and distaste act. Still it is not his responsibility.

The responsibility of course goes to the vandals and the thugs who are acting this way. Yet we have too long tolerated abusive and disrespect in our culture. We need to take some responsibility and tolerate less of this abusive and aggressive conduct.

NancyDrew March 28th, 2010 | 8:52pm

Do you have a more recent poll taken since the bill passed ? I still believe that those that elected him supported the bill, do you have evidence to disprove that ?

confused March 29th, 2010 | 12:43am

Obama's middle name has exactly what to do with Perrielo? And if Obama is such a socialist, then why the massive bailout you describe for a decidedly capitalist industry? Those two things seem completely at odds with one another.

chouva March 29th, 2010 | 12:08pm

tea party participation is a way to hide that you are driven by hate of blacks, women, obama, gays. their conflicting political views dont event make sense in many cases. i actually dont believe 95% understand the issues. its an opportunity to hate, scream and blame obama for other problems in their life.

Old Timer April 1st, 2010 | 5:51pm

Fire Lake,

"I am amazed at the ignorance and naivete of the comments above. This is why our country and has been in, and will continue, a social and economic decline. The New Yorker is perhaps the most left-wing popular magazine on the market."

Uh huh. And this is different from Sarah Palin of the extreme right coming into our State to campaign against Perriello, or to even hold them in the cross hairs?

The right wing gets shown as a flakes because of what they do, like the Hutaree. They stand on a platform the simple facts can show as invalid, and they use hatred and labeling as their guidelines.

Carrie March 28th, 2010 | 7:33am

In response to W. Lakey's comment, "They threaten the nation with a new civil war. Fired up individuals fly planes into IRS offices, spit on congressmen, call out racial slurs." I'd like to point out that ONE nut case flew the plane into the IRS building, all by himself. It is rather narrow minded to paint all "Teabaggers" with that paintbrush. I'd also like to remind all of you that NOWHERE has it been proved that ONE person hurled a racial slur at the congressman who claims it happens - it might be better to say "alleged racial slur" I'm not saying it did or didn't happen, I'm saying even with all the cameras and microphones around him when it was alleged to happen, no one else saw or heard it, not even the other congress people near him. So just because there are some "over the top" nut cases, why are you painting all tea partiers with ONE person's alleged comments?

I don't think all Democrats are Socialists - just some of them.

Jack March 28th, 2010 | 7:33am

Independent Virginians may come to regret their votes for McDonnell and Cuccinelli, and would do well not to vote for anymore so called moderate Republicans ( supported by teabaggers ) in the next election. Once, our state slogan was "Virginia is for Lovers" now we are gaining the moniker, "Virginia is for Haters"--gays, blacks, non-christians, and any other minorities not welcome here--this sure is great for our economy.

Carrie March 28th, 2010 | 7:36am

And one other small point, the single person (not Persons) who flew the plane (not planes) in the IRS offices - was a Liberal - not a Republican, not a Tea Partier.

NancyDrew March 28th, 2010 | 8:21am

Older white folks, the overwhelming majority of attenders at Tea Party events. I encountered a number of these people on a bridge in New York this summer, and many, didn't even know that medicare, which they happily received, was a government run program.

Fire Lake March 28th, 2010 | 10:28am

I am amazed at the ignorance and naivete of the comments above. This is why our country and has been in, and will continue, a social and economic decline. The New Yorker is perhaps the most left-wing popular magazine on the market. They came down here to paint opposition to Perriello as radical loons. Their minds were made up before they arrived. This is bias confirmation and nothing more. Anyone who thinks the New Yorker, or any other mainstream media outlet, offers unbiased and accurate reporting is an utter fool. You people are sheep, and you have no idea what is coming.

Yeah, uh huh, it's the Teaparty people who are the knuckle dragging, intolerant, full of fear and anger, knuckle-dragging loons of incivility and unruly public discourse who are the lasher outers.

Some of you really need to examine your standards and reflect on the actions & attitudes of the vast majority of the members of what is the modern Democrat Party and worry less about the Right.

well now.... March 28th, 2010 | 4:51pm

'The New Yorker is not a Ã¢â?¬Å?magazine for New Yorkers.” It’s the pre-eminent intellectual weekly in the English language.'

I don't disagree with the esteem with which you hold the magazine; I have a subscription. But don't discount the fact that the first 10 pages of the magazine are "goings on about town", events in NYC. I'm not saying that the magazine is provincial, far from it. But it is of, by and for New York and New Yorkers.

Just as "Roman" used to mean more than just the city of Rome, New York is (and has been) the pre-eminent municipality of the English speaking world.

St. Halsey March 28th, 2010 | 5:47pm

Verga is probably a 4th or 5th best of the candidates and has almost no chance of getting the nomination. He's a carpetbagger that is trying to be the County Club tea party guy. If he wasn't paying top dollar for media help out of DC he would be a minor footnote. I seen him speak and he's terrible- perriello would beat this guy like a rented mule.

Cause, you know, if you want to really connect with REPUBLICAN voters of this area the way to do it is with an article in the NEW YORKER!? Verga is a morose, undertaker looking wanabee who has a record of signing checks and nothing else.

Phil Melita March 28th, 2010 | 7:08pm

Same old tired nonsense from the lame stream media. The same old tired straw men of the right and the left. The fact is that the Democrats shut the Republicans out of the so-called health care debate, most likely because it wasn't, and isn't, about health care. This plus the nationalization of the student loan industry, the takeover of major auto manufacturers and large segments of the financial sector, and the coming push for government sanctioned unionization and so-called green energy are nothing more than our version of the soft tyranny of government owning our bodies (where is the "pro-choice" crowd?) and our souls. We will all be willing slaves at the end of the day. That's why "health care reform" legislation was/is so important to our would-be masters. And, Mr. Perriello clearly voted against the majority of his constituents - as I saw with my own eyes at 2 town hall meetings.

NancyDrew March 28th, 2010 | 7:50pm

" Perhaps Mr packer finds elected officials completely ignoring the will (no matter how loudly stated) of his/her constituents to be normal. " Jeff, do you have some statistical evidence for this statement. Mr. Perriello won the election, and he campaigned on health reform; those that elected him supported this vote.

boooo! March 29th, 2010 | 8:53am

Geez said:

"Yeah, it’s not as though those things had just happened during the Vietnam/Watergate era. Wow, what amazing prophecy."
_________

In your effort to be so quick with the snark you failed to realize that the prophesy didn't concern the 60's and early 70s. It concerned this time period. And it's happening, verbatim what was said. There was a gap and a lull in between the 60's/70s and the present day - if you hadn't noticed - where the items on that list were *not* happening. Where there was no war, where the housing market was booming, where the economy had the illusion of being stable, where Wall Street brokers were raking in the cash and there was a strong middle class. **Where what we're seeing right now, in 2010, didn't even seem remotely possible to many people who lived in a bubble of oblivious denial.** Some could say that we had Gulf War I and a recession back in '90-92, sure, but whatever was going on then pales in comparison to what is happening right now, and just how much worse it's going to get for many. Because see, we haven't even factored in the natural happenings, on top of the economic issues. ;)

And also in your efforts to be quick with the snark you failed to read the part where I said there was a lot more to the no Eyes/Summer Rain prophesy than just what I excerpted here. Very weird, specific things, most all of which have happened.

Make of it what you will. But it's in my opinion that this was always going to happen. It's no surprise to certain people. They saw it coming down the pike years ago. Now the rest of the population is only just starting to catch up. "Hey...is something happening....?! Hey...I think I'm mad about this! Let's have a revolt!"

brian March 29th, 2010 | 8:49am

Keep in mind that in 2008 Perriello was living in lower Mnahattan and operated his finance and fundraising office in over the bridge Brooklyn. What better posterboy tham a child of Cville privelege that made it to Yale and entered the age of enlightenmenat according to Rahm Emanuel and John Podesta.

Both of whom are wealthy hacks due to knowing how to train policians on how to use hot button issues and get results. Take the President or Perriello. Paper thin resumes, no talent or experience other than academic. This usually gets you to first base and then you are exposed.
What you are seeing is that after fifteen months both are becoming tranparent to anyone able to think critically.

Thank you,

Observer March 29th, 2010 | 8:25am

So why do all of you so called, decent and well minded Republican men and women (who also claim such affinity toward Christian ideals and morals) have to say about YOUR PARTY backing extremism, neo-Nazism, racial slanders, and the like? I thought you people were AGAINST such ideals - but now you back the notion of a modern civil war (death and destruction) for your so called morals and ideals? Can you explain your position please...????? Your Teabaggers make you all out to be lying deceivers..... Put these people in check and stop backing them financially or otherwise!

Nancy March 29th, 2010 | 8:44am

The majority of Tea Bag members are law abiding citizens, who believe in the political process to bring about change. But, their ranks also includes more radical elements as pointed out by Mark Potok who studies hate groups in the United States:

"I think it's very clear that you see ideas coming out of all kinds of sectors of the radical right, from the immigrant radical right, from the so-called Patriot groups, the militias and so on Ã¢â?¬â? and you see it spreading right across the landscape at some of these Tea Party events," he says. "I think it's worth saying that much of this is aided and abetted by ostensibly mainstream politicians and media members."

Part of the issue, Potok says, is not what politicians say Ã¢â?¬â? but what they leave unsaid."

"Bailing out large companies by forcing all people to conform to those companies’ policy of subsidizing unhealthy lifestyles at the expense of people with healthy lifestyles, eliminating other options previously competing with that program, and using that IRS to force people to conform - that is socialism"

no, that is called Fascism. Not socialism. Socialist programms as a rule are services provided by the government from the general tax fund. Thus, much as right wingers hate to accept it, municipal fire departments, police departments, the uniformed military, and many oher of their pet industries are socialist industries. They just like them because they think they can bully everyone else while they wear it.

They also love mandates, as long as they are the ones pushing through the mandate, and a healthcare mandate was on the angenda of many Republicans, so they have no right to be angry.

I am displeased with the mandate because I don't feel I should be forced to provide a non-competitive marginally regulated for profit industry with its profits. Were the insurance cmpanies all forced to provide policies without profit, I could swallow it better. I could also swallow it better if it actually were socialism, and we were getting this like the NHS in the UK, because for once, I would be getting something back for all the taxes I pay,

Nope, this is CLASSIC Fascism, and I am annoyed at Obama for being such a moderate Republcian all the time.

Caesonia March 29th, 2010 | 7:30pm

Arnold - I have no idea why you think that I suggested the problems left to the current administration could be solved in 2 years. I don't, but I still am annoyed with being handed a Fascist package. The GOP is a bunch of Fascists, or Corporatists, if you prefer. Nor did that start in the last 8 years with dubya. It started about 30 years ago with Reagan. interestingly, Reagan didn;t practice it as whole heartedly as Dubya did.

Practicing Fascism shows that it takes a meare 8 years to destroy a strong economy and global leader.